Quilting

It seems I always refer to the weather when I'm posting my blip for the day. Since I'm more of an outside person the weather determines what I might want to do and what I take pictures of. Although there's plenty of sunshine today, it's windy, the chill factor is in the 30's and I'm not feeling so great. To occupy my time I'm hand-quilting a small wall hanging  while Jerry watches bowling and Nascar. I'm definitely not an expert hand-quilter, but I wanted to hand-quilt this piece = to give it an authentic vintage look. My grandmother pieced the blocks in the 40's to 50's. 

Out of curiosity I looked up the recommended number of stitches per inch for hand-quilting. It is 10 to 12 stitches. I average about 7 or 8. I have several quilts made by my grandmother and my mom. Seems mom was the better quilter. She averaged about 9, my grandmother averaged 6. Knowing my mother and my grandmother I can see why mom was the best. She quilter for beauty and pleasure. She was also a perfectionist when it came to sewing. On the other hand, my grandmother quilted out of necessity. She quilted to keep her family warm. She did not care how perfect her stitches were or how many she stitched per inch. She would have stitched only to get another quilt made for use. 

I think it's a shame so many quilts are machine quilted now. I know it takes much longer, but I love the feel of needle and thread going through fabric. Now, would I hand-quilt a bed-size quilt? No! Wall quilts are plenty for me to handle!